Avid Bioservices Inc (CDMO)

[Fire Fox]

Most important statement in CC was when King, in response to Roth question, repeated that pre-clinical trials with PD-1 and several other immunotherapy drugs were "well underway", and then added that CLINICAL TRIALS FOR THESE UPSTREAM - DOWNSTREAM IMMUNOTHERAPY COMBINATIONS WILL START BEFORE YEAR END.

That statement all but announces that there will be one or more BP partnerships before year end. There are multiple downstream immunotherapy drugs that stimulate killer T Cells, but only one upstream immunotherapy drug, namely Bavi. All of the downstream players want to partner with the one upstream player. Having both upstream and downstream MOAs happening at the same time is where the synergies lie.

Obviously the data coming out of the current preclinical studies--- i.e. bavi plus PD-1 and Bavi plus PD-L1 and Bavi plus CTLA-4,--- will influence who SK picks for a partner. What we learned today, both in SK's opening remarks and in his response to Roth question, is that those preclinical combination upstream / downstream immunotherapy studies are: "WELL UNDERWAY."

Since Steve added, in his reply to Roth, that "CLINICAL IMMUNOTHERAPY COMBINATION TRIALS WILL START BEFORE YEAR END", I have to believe that the data coming out of those pre-clinical combo studies is looking good !!!